The New Gmail Steals Some Great Ideas And Invents Some Fresh Ones

GMAIL’S REDESIGN BORROWS HEAVILY FROM OTHER APPS. NOW IT’S GOOGLE’S TURN TO PUSH EMAIL FORWARD AGAIN.

- Jared Newman

In April, Google launched its first major Gmail redesign (go.pcworld.com/gmup) since 2013, and in a sense it was an acknowledgment of all the ways Google had fallen behind.

With 1.4 billion users logging into Gmail at least once per month, the service has become resistant to change. This in turn has been a boon to the email software business, allowing third-party apps like Mailbox, Spark, Astro, and Newton to invent new features on a more regular basis. Several of Gmail’s most notable new features come straight from these apps, and from the broader software world in general. And while some have previously appeared in Google’s more forward-thinking Inbox app (go.pcworld. com/gvsi), others are new to Gmail entirely.

But as Gmail gets with the times, it’s also introducing some new ideas that haven’t yet occurred to its competitors. The result is a much-needed game of feature leapfrog, which will hopefully compel other email apps to invent even more ways to make email less painful. To that end, here’s a look at what’s new—and not so new—with Gmail’s big upgrade:

NOT NEW: SNOOZING

One of Gmail’s most overdue additions is a Snooze button, which can resurface old emails at a later date and time. A Gmail extension called Boomerang (go.pcworld. com/bmgm) provided similar functionality eight years ago, followed by AOL’s Alto (which used the term [go.pcworld.com/snze] “Snooze”). Mailbox (go.pcworld.com/mlbx) helped popularize the Snooze button in 2013, and it’s since become a table-stakes feature for practically every new email client, including Google’s Inbox, which launched in 2014. Gmail doesn’t do much to advance the concept—in fact, Newton’s mobile app has a handy Snooze Until Back At Desktop feature that other apps would be wise to copy—but at least it’s there.